The Natural History Museum

The Museum houses galleries of animals from Ireland and overseas, also geological exhibits from a total collection of about 2 million scientific specimens.

The Natural History Museum, sometimes called the Dead Zoo is a branch of the National Museum of Ireland, it is located on Merrion Street in Dublin 2.

The Museum was opened in 1857 by the famous Scottish explorer Dr. David Livingstone. The Museum has recently undergone a huge restoration project but the Museum's collection and the building have changed little since Victorian times, so it is sometimes considered as a "museum of a museum".

On the ground floor visitors can experience dedication to Irish Animals, which features some giant deer skeletons, birds, fish and a variety of mammals. Many of the specimens of currently extant animals, such as badgers, hares, and foxes, are over a century old. The ground floor access is now wheelchair accessible.

Visitors can now experience the new first floor with restored access from the original grand stone staircase. Some new facilities have been added including the ‘Discovery Zone’, where visitors can handle taxidermy and see what hides in every drawer and a reading area has been set up.

On the next floor, the Lower Gallery contains mammals from around the world, including now extinct or endangered species including a composite Dodo skeleton, from Mauritius, a thylacine, a quagga, and a pygmy hippopotamus. The second ceiling suspends a Humpback whale skeleton.

The higher galleries above display more primitive animals, from birds through reptiles and fish to invertebrates and microbes. On the upper floor of the building, where it was laid out in the 19th Century is a scientific arrangement showing animals by taxonomic group.

Some of the exhibitions in the exhibitions department are; Mammals of the World, Mating Game, Steps in Evolution, Crystal Jellies, Irish Fauna, Birds of a Feather, Taxonomy Trail and Underwater Worlds.